Behind Blank Eyes, She's Missing
by Twistedmind365
Summary: The war is over, and Nemu is being blamed for her dead father's sins. She is scheduled to be executed. She is positive that no one will come to save her. IchiNemu. Some dark themes, character death. Inspired by Evanescance's Missing, but not a songfic.


**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS, THE PLOT OF, OR ANYTHING AFFILIATED WITH BLEACH. ALL CREDIT GOES TO TITE KUBO, except this storyline. This is mine, Tite Kubo has decided to put Ichigo with either Rukia or Orihime. I'm pretty sure he never considered Nemu as an option.**

Behind Blank Eyes, She's Missing

Pairing: IchigoxNemu

Rating: T to be safe.

Status: Oneshot, though I may continue if I get enough requests to do so.

Warnings: Abuse, neglect, some fluff, swearing.

This fanfiction was inspired by Missing by Evanescance, but it's not really a songfic. The lyrics are, of course, from the aforementioned song

**.. **

No one truly knew Nemu Kurosutchi. All they saw was the drone who had been created by the evil Captain Mayuri, and that was a reason for them all to steer clear of her. She was guilty by association, guilty of her FATHER'S crimes simply because the Soul Society didn't have the balls to accuse Mayuri of being unlawful. And thus, Nemu became the Soul Society's scapegoat for all the horrors her father commited.

Nevermeind that the Central 46 and Yamamoto ignored what Mayuri was doing until it was no longer convenient for them to do so. Once the captain had been killed by Szayel Aporro Granz in the Winter War, the secrets of what had been going on in the 12th Division were revealed. Every day, Mayuri went on what he had called 'energy hunts'. What The Grand Old Windbag Yamamoto had claimed to NOT know was that he kidnapped and killed humans and souls with high spiritual pressure levels.

Nemu Kurosutchi was scheduled to be executed the next day at noon. She knew that nobody would try to save her. She mulled this all over as she sat in the Repetance Cell in her white robe… The same kind that Rukia Kuchiki had worn all those months ago. But she doubted there would be any Ichigo to save _her. _Her father had been very cruel to the Substitute Shinigami and his friends. Also, she knew that Ichigo would not stand for needless deaths. He would do anything in his power to get revenge for the dead. The easiest and, Nemu was sure, least troubling way for Kurosaki to do so would be allowing them to kill her.

Her death wouldn't trouble Ichigo Kurosaki in the least, she was sure. Nemu ended up humming a song she'd learned while on a mission in the World of the Living not quite two months previous of her… father's death. Nemu supposed she could call him that now, he was dead and couldn't smack her for it. He always seemed to know if she called him father, even in her thoughts. Thinking about him only made the song clearer in her mind, and the lyrics both ripped open old wounds and worsened the new.

_Please, please forgive me_

_But I won't be home again_

_Maybe someday you'll look up_

_And barely conscious, you'll say to no one_

_Isn't something missing?_

_You won't cry for my absence, I know_

_You forgot me long ago_

_Am I that unimportant?_

_Am I so insignificant?_

_Isn't something missing?_

_Isn't someone missing me…?_

Sighing heavily, she felt some sort of liquid in her eyes. It wasn't any form of chemical, she didn't suppose… A drop fell on her finger- it was clear. Curious, she licked her finger. It tasted salty. What… Oh, perhaps they were something she had read about once- tears. But her father had made her specifically to not have emotions.

Simply to ignore where her train of thought was going, she did what her father taught her the first time she couldn't sleep- cracked her head sharply and deliberately against the wall, forcing her to fall unconscious.

When she finally awoke, the sotaichou was standing over her with a superior expression on his face. "So, you have tried to end your suffering quickly by giving yourself a concussion? That is impossible! We specifically invented a kidou and put it on the tower to keep anyone from killing themselves in that tower so they could be punished as they deserved- with a slow and painful death." Yamamoto boomed.

Nemu blinked. Once, then twice. "That was not my intention, Head Captain Yamamoto. I simply had trouble sleeping, so I put myself to sleep as Captain Kurosutchi taught me. Is there a problem?" Isane gasped and had a horrified look on her face, and Unahona opened her eyes out of pure shock. Yamamoto dismissed it with a wave of his hand.

"But of course she was lying! It was obviously a suicide attempt, which she tried to deny once she realized that we are far smarter than she is." Nemu just looked on blankly, making no retorts and showing no emotion. Unahona and Isane looked doubtful, but Yamamoto just gave an annoyed 'hmph' and walked away like someone had shoved a stick up his rectum.

How much time passed in what seemed like only a few minutes, Nemu was not sure. She didn't know when she had woken up, as no one had bothered to tell her the time when she asked. But in what seemed like the span of five minutes, Nemu was kneeling in front of Yamamoto. She remembered with a small rush of satisfaction that they had not been able to repair the Sōkyoku since Kurosaki had destroyed the stand during his recon mission for Rukia Kuchiki. She saw, no, she _felt _his sword raise- she couldn't look up because she was being pinned down by Soi Fon- and suddenly, the wheight on her back was gone, as was the Head Captain's spiritual pressure. Where Yamamoto had been, there was now a familiar teenager with bright orange hair and his famed scowl.

Despite how intimidating he looked at first sight, Nemu could see the strange warmth in his eyes as he looked at her, the kind of warmth that was mixed with pity. She got on her feet shakily- Wait. She could stand? A hand went to the collar they had put on her… Hers was more brutal than the one the female Kuchiki had donned. The collar Nemu had recived binded reiatsu and almost completely disabled motor functions.

It was gone. Nemu craned her neck to see that all the captains and vice-captains who had voted for her execution were bound, gagged, held at swordpoint, and had the reiatsu and motor-function disabling collars on their necks. The ones who had pinned them down were Rukia, Renji, Urahara, Yoruichi, Hanataro, Hitsugaya, Matsumoto, Ikkaku, Yumichika, Uryuu (his hostage was held at bow-point), Chad (fist-point), and two Soul Reapers she didn't recognize.

They felt familiar, but also they felt like they should look different. The girls looked to be around Ichigo's age… Ichigo saw her looking at them and said "Those are my sisters, Yuzu-" He gestured to the one with waist-length sandy brown hair, kind light brown eyes, and a cheerful smile with a pink bow in her hair "- And Karin, my other sister." He indicated the other, who had a long, lean physique, black hair tied back in a ponytail that reached about halfway to her elbows, and dark brown eyes. She also had a scowl on that was similar to Ichigo's.

She was right- she did know them. But if they were that old, then shouldn't Ichigo be…? The aforementioned Kurosaki must have noticed her confusion and smiled gently. Nemu saw eyes widen, saw jaws drop, saw eyebrows raise, and heard gasps all around. She guessed that smiling was not a common thing for the ryoka. "I died a few years back. Didn't they tell you? That's why I was here for the Winter War." Nemu shook her head mutely. Yamamoto hadn't told anyone- that was before she had been sentenced to death, obviously.

"Old Man Yama probably decided not to tell anyone because I refused to become a captain just then. I still needed some matters I needed to settle, some thanks I needed to give, some lessons I still had to learn, and I had to go to my funeral to see Yuzu and Karin."

Before she even noticed what she was doing, Nemu smiled back at him. And in that instant, she knew she would be safe. Because Ichigo had just pulled her into his arms with a hold that seemed he would never release. She was safe now.


End file.
